Antique Hunting: Pezenas, France
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- Published on 26 July 2013
Here's a post for those of you who may be up for a spot of antique hunting in France, if not this summer then maybe sometime in the not too distant future. When I first started trying to buy antiques in France in the late 90s I and my partner would often waste a good deal of time and fuel driving round trying to find antique shops with only the vaguest notion of their locations. The advent of the internet and the SatNav has made life a lot easier when it comes to tracking down promising sources but you can still cover a lot of miles between worthwhile outlets.
There are a few places where good antique shops spring up obligingly close together. One such gem of a place is Pezenas in the South of France. It's a lovely languid small French town. Always hot, always a little dusty. The buildings are casually beautiful and somehow fading without ever looking anything less than chic.
Pezenas is on the tourist trail even for those who aren't especially interested in antiques. For a small town it has an impressive looking tourist office (Building below left):


Moliere, who spent his formative writing years in Pezenas, is made much of with at least one hotel and a restaurant named after him and a statue erected in his honour:


The main attraction certainly is the many antique shops. There are so many and they offer such an array of goods that you are bound to find something to take home with you. On the whole the prices are pretty fair once you've bartered them down a little - they won't be offended as long as you don't suggest a ridiculously low price.
I can't pass places like these in the images below without wanting to go in to see if they have any fabulous items that would really suit a client's home.





If you are into vintage and antique pieces you will love Pezenas. Let me know if you ever get there.
Triciax